Cadbury chairman to retire

Sir John Sunderland has announced he will retire as chairman of Cadbury Schweppes next year after 40 years at the company.

He was the first chief executive to be appointed from outside the family when he succeeded Sir Dominic Cadbury in 1996, a post he held until he moved up to chairman four years ago. Sir John's vision has shaped Cadbury for over a decade. In 1995 the company acquired Dr Pepper/Seven-Up, challenging the dominance of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the US.

Seven years later, having failed to acquire US chocolate rival Hershey, Sir John turned his attention to the fast-growing gum category with the £2.5bn acquisition of Trident maker Adams.

Sir John, a former president of the CBI, has latterly divested Cadbury's non-US drinks businesses and will oversee the demerger of US fizzy pop business. In June, Cadbury had hoped to sell its US drinks arm to a private equity buyer for up to £8bn. Yesterday, however, it confirmed this was no longer a possibility.

"It was a time in history when private equity could pay more than a public market valuation," said finance director Ken Hanna. "But [since the credit market slowdown] there hasn't been one large private equity deal done - small deals are getting done, but we are a very large deal."

The US drinks arm will be demerged and listed on the New York stock exchange, probably next spring.

Separately, Cadbury yesterday said its drinks business grew by 3% in the third quarter and its confectionery business showed 10% growth.